Twitter gets tough on trolls

Threatening, offensive and abusive Tweets may soon become a thing of the past thanks to a new 'quality filter' launched this week.

Hiding behind a screen and firing off abusive and threatening Tweets is behavior that Twitter wants to rally against. To this end, the social network has launched a new tool to combat the trolls.

However, the 'quality filter' will initially only be available to verified users while it is in test mode, mainly because such users have larger than average numbers of Followers and therefore, sad to say, more abuse hurled at them.

According to a Twitter notification, the quality filter "aims to remove all tweets from your notifications timeline that contain threats, offensive or abusive language, duplicate content, or are sent from suspicious accounts".

Earlier this month Twitter introduced a new feature that enables easy documentation of abuse should a user wish to take up online threats with a law enforcement agency.

"While we take threats of violence seriously and will suspend responsible accounts when appropriate, we strongly recommend contacting your local law enforcement if you're concerned about your physical safety," said Twitter in the announcement.